The Ultimate Notion Travel Database: Organize Destinations, Itineraries, and Maps in One Place
Build a Notion travel database with Place properties, trip organization, and GPS export. Start planning smarter trips today.
A Notion travel database is the single best way to organize all your trip planning in one place. Instead of scattered browser tabs, buried screenshots, and lost WhatsApp recommendations, you get a searchable, mappable system that exports to GPS devices for offline navigation.
We've all been there. You're planning a trip and suddenly you have twenty browser tabs open, a Notes app full of half-remembered recommendations, screenshots of Instagram posts you meant to save properly, and a WhatsApp thread with your friend's "must-visit" spots buried somewhere in a sea of messages. By the time you actually arrive at your destination, half of those recommendations have vanished into the digital void.
There's a better way. With Notion's Place property and a well-structured travel database, you can consolidate everything into one searchable, mappable, exportable system. And when you're ready to hit the road, you can export the whole thing to GPX for offline navigation on your GPS device.
Building Your Notion Travel Database
Start by creating a new database in Notion. The magic ingredient here is the Place property, which stores actual geographic coordinates rather than just text addresses. When you add a location using the Place property, Notion looks up the coordinates, giving you lat/long data that can be exported to mapping applications.
Your essential properties should include the place name as your title, a Place property for the location, a select property for trip name, another select for status (want to visit, planned, visited), a multi-select for category (food, sights, nature, nightlife, shopping), and a notes field for details like opening hours or reservation requirements.
The status property is particularly powerful. Before a trip, everything starts as "want to visit." As you build your itinerary, items move to "planned." After you've been somewhere, mark it "visited" and add your notes while the experience is fresh. Over time, you build a personal travel history that's infinitely more useful than scattered photos and fading memories.
Organizing by Trip
Here's where Notion's relational databases shine. Create a separate Trips database with properties for destination, dates, travel companions, and trip status. Then link your places database to it. Now you can filter your places by trip, seeing only the spots relevant to your upcoming adventure in Portugal or that weekend getaway to Austin.
This structure also lets you reuse places across trips. That incredible ramen shop in Tokyo? It lives in your database forever. Next time you're planning a Japan trip, it's already there waiting for you, complete with your notes about which dish to order and what time to arrive to avoid the line.
Building Itineraries That Actually Work
A common mistake is treating your travel database as a static list. Instead, add a date property and use it to build day-by-day itineraries. Filter by trip and sort by date, and suddenly you have a chronological plan that makes geographic sense.
The real power comes when you visualize this on a map. With Notion to Maps, you can see all your planned stops laid out geographically. That's when you realize the museum you planned for Tuesday morning is right next to the restaurant you booked for Thursday lunch. Swap them around, and you've just saved yourself an hour of unnecessary transit.
The Offline Navigation Game-Changer
Here's the scenario: you're wandering through a medieval town in Croatia, your phone has one bar of signal, and you're trying to find that hidden konoba your Airbnb host recommended. If your recommendations live only in Notion or Google Maps, you're out of luck.
But if you've exported your database to GPX format before leaving home, you can load those waypoints into offline GPS apps. Many popular apps like OsmAnd and various Garmin devices support GPX file imports. Your carefully curated list of spots becomes available without any internet connection.
The export process is simple. Connect your Notion database to Notion to Maps, and download the GPX file. Transfer it to your phone or GPS device, and every place you've saved becomes a navigable waypoint. No signal required. You can also export to KML for Google Earth visualization before your trip.
Making It Sustainable
The best travel system is one you'll actually use. Keep the friction low by adding places the moment you discover them. Reading an article about hidden gems in Lisbon? Add them immediately. Friend texts you a restaurant recommendation? Straight into the database. The thirty seconds it takes now saves the frustration of trying to remember "that place someone mentioned" six months later.
Consider adding a source property to track where recommendations came from. When you're finally sitting in that perfect little wine bar, you'll remember to thank the right person.
Your travel database becomes more valuable with every trip. It's not just a planning tool; it's a living document of everywhere you've been and everywhere you want to go. And unlike those twenty browser tabs, it'll still be there when you need it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I share my Notion travel database with friends?
Connect your Notion database to Notion to Maps and share the generated map URL. Your travel companions can view all your planned spots on an interactive map without needing a Notion account. They can tap markers to see your notes and get directions to any location.
Can I use my Notion places offline while traveling?
Yes. Export your database to GPX format and import it into offline GPS apps like OsmAnd, Maps.me, or Gaia GPS. Download the region's offline maps in the app before your trip, and all your waypoints work without internet. This is essential for international travel where data roaming is expensive or unavailable.
What's the best way to organize locations by city in Notion?
Add a "City" or "Destination" select property to your database. You can then filter by city to see only relevant places. For multi-city trips, create a separate Trips database and link it to your places using a relation property. This lets you reuse places across multiple trips while keeping each itinerary organized.
How do I export my travel plans to Google Maps?
Export your Notion database to KML format and import it into Google My Maps. You can also export to CSV and import that by selecting the latitude and longitude columns. Once imported, your places appear as pins you can access in the Google Maps mobile app under Saved > Maps.
Can I add photos and notes to my Notion travel database?
Absolutely. Add a Files & Media property for photos, and use the built-in Notes or Description property for detailed information. While photos don't export to GPX files, they appear on the web map and help you remember why you saved a place. Your notes export as waypoint descriptions visible on GPS devices.